Her Jason
by An Avengers Fan
Summary: "Piper McLean sat on the Aphrodite cabin doorstep, staring moodily off into space. Her day had been pretty terrible, and the afternoon had barely even started. Where was Jason?" In which Jason says what needs to be said and Piper does not realize just how bad her day is about to get. [Oneshot, one-sided JasonxPiper, rated for lack of offensive content]


**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Percy Jackson and the Olympians**_** or **_**The Heroes of Olympus**_**. I do not own any of the characters therein. I am not making profit through this but am writing for pleasure.**

Piper McLean sat on the Aphrodite cabin doorstep, staring moodily off into space. Her day had been pretty terrible, and the afternoon had barely even started. From the moment that she had gotten out of bed, things had gone wrong. First of all, her aim had been off during archery. She had almost shot Chiron, which would have been bad. But he had trained a lot of demigods who were terrible at archery and had been able to dodge the arrow. Thirty minutes later, she had fallen off her Pegasus (while it was landing thankfully) and gotten all banged up. Lastly while on the climbing wall, she had gotten sprayed with a little bit of lava, which left a small burn on her arm that stung. And while all of these things were annoying, they weren't the real reason why Piper was so grouchy. The reason why she was so grumpy was because she had not talk to or even seen Jason Grace all day! That fact alone made her day terrible, but on top of everything else that had happened, she felt like her day stunk.

Where was Jason? She usually at least saw him while flying on her Pegasus or while rotating activities. He couldn't have been sent on a quest. But what if he had been on his way to Bunker 9 and had gotten attacked by a drakon in the forest! Well, Jason could easily kill a drakon, but what if it was one of those drakons fated to only be killed by a child of Ares...

A small but sharp kick in her behind made Piper turn around with a scowl and an irritated "Ow!" Drew stood behind her in the cabin doorway, smirking at her.

Drew tossed her head, making her black curls bounce across her shoulders, "Excuse me, hon, but I'm coming through."

Piper's scowl only deepened, and she didn't budge. "Go climb out the window if you need to get out of the cabin that bad," she growled.

"That's not nice, hon," Drew scolded her. Piper glared at Drew, but she didn't appear to be ready to give in any time soon. She only nudged Piper again with the tip of her shoe as if she was a dead animal blocking her path. Piper was sick of putting up with Drew. About a month after she had become head counselor, Drew had been beginning to create problems again.

"Fine," Piper spat. "I was about to get up anyway." She stood up, turned, and gave Drew one last glare.

Drew was still smirking at her. "Sure you were, hon."

Piper stalked off towards the basketball court. Why had she let that jerk get her way? Why couldn't she have just shoved her out the window? Her single, lame excuse was that she had already been having a hard day, and it was okay for her to let Drew have her way just this once so she could be rid of her quickly. Piper sighed. She'd be dealing with Drew for a long time, but she couldn't let Drew just run her over whenever Piper wasn't feeling up for a fight. Why couldn't she just face Drew the same way she had the day when she became camp counselor? Where had all that confidence gone? All she felt now was exhaustion and disappointment with herself for not standing up to Drew.

Piper tried console herself. If she could find Jason, maybe he could help her. He was always such a great listener. She could tell him anything. All day she could sit there, staring into his sky blue eyes and pouring out her heart to him. His replies always made her feel better, like she was actually worth something, like somebody cared. That kind and gentle face was always touched with a bit of sadness, but whenever it turned towards her with a smile, her day couldn't get any better.

With the thought of Jason's smile still in her mind, she scanned the basketball court for her 6' 1'' almost boyfriend. There were lots of blonde, tall boys on the court, but none of them were her Jason. Piper drooped. It was only a bunch of stinking Apollo kids. Piper watched them for a few minutes as they dropped baskets from all over the court. Showoffs! Disgusted, she turned her back on them and tried to think of where Jason could be. Maybe he was in his cabin, but that happened very rarely. Still she had to look, so she started off for the Zeus cabin.

As she was walking towards the Zeus cabin, Piper noticed a tall boy with blonde hair coming out of the woods. Her breath caught in her throat. It was Jason!

"Jason!" she called excitedly and waved to him. Jason looked around, surprised. Piper waved again, and he noticed her. A strange look passed across his face. Pain maybe? But then he smiled just like her old Jason. Quickly Piper trotted over to him, smiling.

" Where have you been?" Piper asked happily. "I've been looking for you everywhere!" Okay, well, maybe she hadn't looked everywhere, but it felt like it! A look of guilt flashed across his face.

"Um, yeah, I've been busy helping Leo with _Argo II_." Jason paused for a moment. "Hey, want to go take a walk?"

"Sure," she tried to say casually, but Piper was filled with joy. Finally, quality time with Jason!

Slowly, Jason and Piper meandered around the edge of Camp Half-Blood's property. Piper was so happy to be with Jason, but their conversation was a bit lacking.

"So, Jason, how's your day been going?" she asked.

Jason almost looked startled when she spoke. "Oh, well, I mean." He stopped. Almost like was composing himself. "My day has been going really well. How's yours been going?"

Horrible until you showed up, but Piper wasn't going to tell him that. "Oh, it's been fine," she answered vaguely.

Jason smiled a little but didn't say anything more. Piper was okay with that. His very presence was soothing. Drew didn't seem so important anymore. Besides, Piper had still conquered Drew in this. She had Jason, and Drew was single. She smiled in triumph. Victory tasted so sweet.

The two walked on in silence. After a while, Piper began to get worried. Did Jason find her this uninteresting? Did he feel like he couldn't say anything about what was going on in his life? She had seen his strange look when he first saw her today.

"Jason?" she whispered softly, nervously. He didn't respond. Was he ignoring her? Anxiously she reached over and grabbed his hand.

Abruptly, Jason cried, "Piper," pulling his hand out of hers, shocked.

He had stopped walking.

"Yes, Jason?" she asked, her voice trembling a bit. Why had he acted so strongly?

"It's..." He sighed and looked up at the sky and then back at her. He began again, "Piper." His tone made her freeze. "It seems like we've known each other for a long. Since the quest we've gotten very close, but..." He took a deep breath. "But I've never been close to you in that way." He paused as if waiting for a response, but a huge lump had formed in Piper's throat. So Jason just plowed on, "I really admire some of your qualities, and you're a great fighter. I would gladly go on another quest with you, because you're an awesome partner, but I don't feel that way about you. I just wanted to warn you before you got your hopes up."

Jason looked at her nervously. Piper's eyes stung. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Her world was breaking into pieces and crashing down on her. She tried to take a breath, but it came out as a sob. Though her vision was blurred by tears, she saw all the hope in Jason's face crumble into disappointment. It was too much for Piper. Her heart had been ripped in two, and now she was hurting Jason as well. Piper broke down completely.

Immediately Jason was by her side, trying to comfort her. "Hey, it's alright, Pipes." She buried her head in his chest. As she sobbed, Piper mentally harassed herself. She should have seen this coming. Her life had always been terrible, but now having the one thing that she treasured here at camp being taken away from her. And here he was, the perfect gentleman comforting, holding a girl who he didn't even like with that heart-wrenching expression of worry on his face. Why couldn't she go take herself somewhere else and cry so Jason didn't have to hurt with her? But Piper couldn't make herself let go of him.

Through her sobs, Piper heard Jason murmuring to her, "You're one of my good friends, and that's not going to change." After hearing that, she wanted to sob some more, but she tried to get a grip on herself. She gulped back her sobs and took a deep breath, breathing in the fresh, woodsy smell of Jason. It helped to calm her thoughts. "You okay?" Jason asked. She nodded and tried to smile at him, but it came out more like a grimace.

Her head ached from crying. Her heart ached too. Everything around her was blurred by the pain. She heard Jason say something about getting her to her cabin, and she nodded vaguely. She felt him gently support her as they walked. Gripping Jason's hand tightly so as to shut out the pain, she hardly noticed when they got to back to her cabin. As Jason sat her down on her bed, Piper noticed the big wet spot she had made on his shirt, but he never said a word about it.

Jason took a breath and hesitated. "I might not feel that way now, but I'm not going to close the door so hard now that it can't be opened later." Suddenly, there was a little spark of hope in Piper's chest. She glanced up at him hopefully, but she could tell he had only said that to comfort her. Her heart sank. Jason leaned down and rubbed her hand in one last attempt to console her. Then he turned and left the cabin.

Piper got up and walking over to the window, watching him walk away towards his own cabin. All her dreams had been burned to ashes, and yet, somewhere among the ashes that spark of hope had made a tiny, tiny flame. Maybe, just maybe he would someday come back, and then she could be with him. Jason. Her Jason.

But he never did.


End file.
